Matt: 1:00

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Rob: 1:13

We have lift off! Welcome to Matt and Friends. Drink the Universe.

Matt: 1:22

Drink the Universe. Hello everyone, welcome back to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe. I'm here today at Invertaste Brewery in Phillipsburg, new Jersey, and joining me I have a very special Steve Zolnay, . Hi, steve, thank you very much for joining us.

Rob: 1:39

I thought I was a special guest today. Special, yes, oh okay. Yeah, very special, hi everybody, it's Rob. Special guest today, special, yes, oh, okay, yeah, very special, hi everybody, it's Rob.

Matt: 1:47

So Steve has graciously asked us to come and visit today, which we deeply appreciate. He has some beers ready for us and I'm excited because he has some cue cards on the other side of the table for different stories that he has. But I want to start off asking you about the brewery, your journey where the name came from.

Steve Zolnay: 2:05

No problem and thanks for coming and hanging out with us for the day. Thank you again for having us. So when my son was 14 years old, for Father's Day he got me a beer kit the requisite box of misery and we went and made a horrific mess in the kitchen. My wife was pretty upset and it was the worst beer we ever could imagine. But we continued to brew through his high school years and into college and he was starting to put up some pretty good beers.

Steve Zolnay: 2:35

We actually put him in one of the big Keystone events and he thought he was the dude and was going to crush everybody. He did very well and unfortunately he didn't win, which really irritated him, and he went dark and after about two months of doing a lot of studying, the first beer that came out was the predecessor to our Hazy New England 1954, which is now half of our business day, week, month and year. But he went on to college. I got an engineering degree and then when he graduated he was working as a design engineer for five years and one day he looked down the cubicles and said yep, when I'm 57, I'm going to be the vice president. So he picked up the phone and called me and said dad, let's talk about a brewery. Six months later, we started swinging hammers in Phillipsburg and we built out a brewery for ourselves.

Matt: 3:25

That's awesome, yeah, and you had a fun story you shared with me about the building here while we were setting up. But is the 1954 on the table here?

Steve Zolnay: 3:34

1954 is on the table. If you lift up one of the glasses, it's a hazy. You'll see it marked out.

Rob: 3:41

Top right, top right, that's your left, oh no no, we're.

Matt: 3:47

We're a long day, all right cheers, cheers, cheers to you, steers.

Rob: 3:52

Thank you, that's a good beer.

Matt: 3:55

Yeah, it is very solid ipa yep, thank you.

Steve Zolnay: 3:59

Uh, we do have a few ipas on. We don't want to be known as an ipa house, but we generally have at least two, maybe three. Currently we have three on there, 1954, which is a hazy New England. And then we've got Arithmophobia, which is the fear of math and numbers, and then we have Misplaced References, which is a double IPA.

Matt: 4:19

I think I have Arithmophobia. Do I have?

Rob: 4:22

that, rob, I believe you do. Okay, fair enough. I'm checking this in because it's delicious.

Matt: 4:27

You're untapping it.

Rob: 4:29

Untapping it, yes A very respectable 3.85, with over 1,500 ratings on this beer.

Matt: 4:37

Very cool.

Rob: 4:38

Yeah.

Matt: 4:38

Very cool. So, invertase, where did the First of all? Am I pronouncing it correctly? Yes, you are. Where did the first of all? Am I pronouncing it correctly? Yes, you are. Thank you.

Steve Zolnay: 4:44

We get all sorts of derivations that just grind our teeth. But yes, invertase is the first enzyme in the beer making process. It splits the sugars so that the yeast can eat and turn sugar into alcohol. I'm a biochemist by training. I worked in pharma for 20 years, so I chose that name, and when you put that as your website domain, it's brilliant because nobody is using that. You can misspell Invertase and we still come up on our top five hits. Wow.

Matt: 5:16

So we have a plethora of wacky sound drops, but that's going to get one of these Science Science.

Rob: 5:20

I actually am a biologist by trade as well. I work at Pharma, currently Nice. I find beer science to be very cool.

Steve Zolnay: 5:31

Oh, and when scientists come into the brewery and they start to see our mass specs on the wall and our fishery culture hoods, they start jumping up and down like little kids. So it's a lot of fun.

Matt: 5:36

He's looking around like where, where, where, yep.

Steve Zolnay: 5:40

It's over on the other side. So I'm a biochemist, my wife is a microbiologist and, as I mentioned, my son, the brewmaster, is a mechanical engineer. Very cool.

Matt: 5:50

Very cool. And you said your wife is related to Isaac.

Steve Zolnay: 5:55

Newton. Oh wow, Where's the apple?

Rob: 6:00

Yeah, you should have brought one, we could have dropped it.

Matt: 6:03

Well, no, my comment before was the gravity of that statement.

Rob: 6:07

Oh God, that's a reach.

Steve Zolnay: 6:10

So Isaac Newton did not have any children but his brother. That line is run there. So my wife is a distant cousin to Isaac Newton Cool.

Matt: 6:19

Wow, and how long have you been here at this location?

Steve Zolnay: 6:23

Five and a half years and we are opening a second location in a few months in Lamberville.

Matt: 6:28

I'm really happy that I discovered Invertase fairly recently. I think we started talking about two months ago. My friend Andy Miller and I who's been on the podcast before were looking for a place to go. We wanted to just try something new and he said, hey, how about Invertase? And we ended up here and we got to try a couple really good ones. I'm a big fan of the belgian triple.

Steve Zolnay: 6:51

That's up there as well, so is that down here?

Matt: 6:52

uh, yes, I put that on there for you and that is my dinner sunday night.

Steve Zolnay: 6:56

Because you know sunday is my friday night. We work, you know, thursday, friday, saturday and sunday. So when we go home I bring home a four pack of and it pairs very well with a brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tart as a side note. I'll have to keep that in mind Did you find it Top left, matthew, top left there you go.

Matt: 7:13

I went to the left that time. Cheers. I was going to say we don't have to clink every time. Oh, I had that one when I was here before and I bought a four pack to leave. I think I had two of them when I were here. Just phenomenal, Thank you.

Rob: 7:27

It's giving me a little bit of like. I don't know if it's because I just had this one before, but it's giving me a little bit of like a kettle sour note A little bit Just a teenth which I love sours, so I like this very much.

Matt: 7:41

I'm going to hit the button. Should I hit the button? I want to hit the button.

Rob: 7:47

Stellar Sin. That's a very good beer.

Steve Zolnay: 7:52

So the reason that the Belgian Triple is on there is number one. I like Belgians so I wanted to have that on there. Secondly, that is a beer that you can't hide your sins behind hops, so you actually have to do a good job on that. And the other point for it was as an homage to Weyerbacher, because the first conversation we had was at Weyerbacher and we were drinking Merry Monks. So it kind of an homage to the local godfather of the area.

Matt: 8:19

I appreciate that Merry Monks has definitely come up on the podcast before speaking from Nazareth right up the road from Easton. I appreciate the homage. For sure. Steve has brought some cue cards with some stories that he's accumulated from over the years. Rob, why don't you reach in there? Pull?

Rob: 8:35

one out. Is that what I'm going to do?

Matt: 8:37

That's what you're going to do. That's how we're going to do it. I'm excited for this. I'm just going to go in the middle.

Rob: 8:41

Ooh, no beer. I don't, I don't, I don't know if we want to talk about that.

Steve Zolnay: 8:45

That makes me sad, good story.

Steve Zolnay: 8:47

No very good story. So our, our roles in the organization my son is the brewer, my wife manages the events and activities and, um, I kind of run the front, run the group, and, uh, I go around and I talk to people and everybody has all sorts of interesting stories and anecdotes and I kind of collect them in my head. A real cool thing happened the first summer of the pandemic. We got a phone call from this band saying, hey, we want to come play at your brewery and so my wife's responsible for that. So she kind of went and looked it up and she was going through it and I'm sitting across from her on a laptop and she kind of turns pale and she goes going through it, and I'm sitting across from her on a laptop and she kind of turns pale and she goes. I go, what's the matter? She says they are famous. I said what do you mean by famous? And she goes well, they have seven albums.

Steve Zolnay: 9:33

They're a country-western band and they have a Greyhound bus that's pimped out with murals and cow horns on the front and they do the whole south by southwest circuit and I said, yo, we'd love to get them. She says okay. So I picked up the phone. I called them and said uh, we'd really like you to come here, but, um, how much money do you want? And they're locally based here in new jersey. They said we haven't played in six months. We'll do it for 400. And I said okay so we got.

Steve Zolnay: 10:02

We got a food truck and we advertised and stuff and they rolled in that afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday during the summer and they unloaded all their gear and they just played. They played their own music and all the other country western hits and you couldn't tell the difference. And this place got so crowded and word got out that four more food trucks showed up. We had a food blogger show up. He was chugging meatballs there was in the parking lot. This place was overrun. I'm sure the fire marshal was probably cringing given the number of people inside and out of this building. By 6 o'clock the only beer we had left was stout and the whole brewery was sticky and insane. That was probably the most money we ever made in a single day. And the next morning people were banging on our doors and we had to be closed because we literally had no beer at all.

Steve Zolnay: 10:59

We had stuff in the tanks, but they weren't ready, they drank our entire brewery dry in one afternoon.

Matt: 11:05

Oh, wow.

Steve Zolnay: 11:06

God bless AJ. What band was that? It's AJ Crowe and the Devil's Right Hand Band.

Rob: 11:12

Okay, yep, do you know who it is? No, Okay. But I don't listen to country music, so that's not a shock to me.

Matt: 11:20

Now that you say that, not necessarily a shock to me either. I have to look them up, though, now that you say that.

Steve Zolnay: 11:24

Not necessarily a shock to me either. I have to look them up, though. No, the shock was. I was so excited. I asked can I come on the tour bus? And they said yeah, yeah. So I went in there and they have all sorts of cool stuff in there. And then I got off the bus and I turned to my wife and said, hey, hon, you should go check out the tour bus. And she said yeah, and she ran go on the tour bus. But yeah, they were super nice people and they've played several times here and really nice. We have a photo of them on the wall in the back corner.

Matt: 11:51

Well that's cool. I'll have to go check that out.

Rob: 11:53

Very cool, very cool. So that's AJ, that's AJ. All right, your turn, matt. All right, draw a card.

Steve Zolnay: 12:04

All right, we got big fuss. Big fuss okay, so big fuss is an 80s cover band. Uh, they're kind of based out of washington clinton area. Um, super nice guys. Before we even opened they started harassing us by email saying hey, we're a really good band. You got to come. And we were nervous and new, we didn't know what was a good band and a bad band. But they just worked us and worked us and worked us and finally we gave up and said, okay, come, we'll bite the bullet, we'll pay for your, your gig to be here and play. And they played long and well and drew a big crowd and we, they come three times a year. And we started joking that they were kind of the house band for us.

Steve Zolnay: 12:48

And uh, one day I was driving up to work and I was listening to the philly radio station and they were talking about victory brewing and they did a collab with sticks and they made a band. A beer named after them called oh mama. And I was thinking myself hey, I'm a brewery, I can do this. So I called james from the big fuss and I said did you hear about that victory thing? And it's like yeah, that's pretty cool. I said do you have a beer named after you, like what. So they came to this table. We invited them all to this table and my son sat down with them and said okay, tell me what your dream beer will be and we'll make it for you. So they talked and they were like freaking out. They go oh my God, we're just a shitty bar band, what the heck is this.

Steve Zolnay: 13:31

So Steve and my son made the beer for them and on the beer opening which we do in April, which is coming up in a week or so, we always have the Big Fuss Band beer on tap and we made a label for them and they signed the label and it's hanging on the wall, and they are the best and most loyal band that we get and they do a great job here. So shout out to the Big Fuss.

Matt: 13:57

What kind of beer is it? It's a Hazy New England. It's a Hazy New England, yep, okay.

Rob: 14:02

I aspire to have a beer named after us one day. That would be cool.

Steve Zolnay: 14:06

We can work on it. Oh, oh, look at that, ooh.

Rob: 14:11

You want to pick one. Sure yeah, and then I want to pick one more beer. I'm flying through these beers. They're too good for the morning Breakfast beers Way to give it away. That's okay.

Matt: 14:24

All of our drinking is done responsibly. Afternoon. No, it is not no, if you listen to the early episodes we're recording at 9 am, Train man, Train man, Awesome.

Steve Zolnay: 14:34

So it was a beautiful fall day and the outside beer garden was bumping and there were people inside. Outside beer garden was bumping and there were people inside and all of a sudden this guy wearing a one of those reflective vests green reflective vests is standing in front of my taps and kind of nervously and I said everything, okay, he goes, no, I just need a four pack. And given on his nervousness, he also had a walkie talkie on his thing I went and looked out the back door and I see a freight train with a hundred great cars and it stopped and I look and I go is that your train? And he goes yeah uh?

Steve Zolnay: 15:13

I said what's going on? He says um, I live out in western pennsylvania and my wife mapped out the route and said why don't you pick up some beer? So he jumped the fence, ran in, grabbed the four-pack. That is incredible, but I told him. I said dude, you're in trouble. He says why am I in trouble? He says I said the trains are all GPSed and that means they know you stopped. And he just held up his phone and showed me the safety alert debris on track.

Rob: 15:43

He had his bases covered.

Steve Zolnay: 15:48

He did. He blew the whistle and took off off. Three weeks later he's standing in my tap room again. I said, dude, text me. And he says, no, I just like jumping the fence. And a year later I go out and there's two women sitting at the same table and I sat down and talk with them and they said you know, it was really weird, this guy jumped the fence, stopped his train and jumped the fence. And I said that's my story. He says no, we've seen him first. So sometimes he drives by, honks and waves and keeps going. Sometimes he stops and gets beer from us.

Rob: 16:17

That's pretty cool.

Matt: 16:18

And he's from western.

Steve Zolnay: 16:19

Pennsylvania. Yeah, I won't tell you where, because I don't want him to lose his job.

Rob: 16:23

I hope that you only know him as Train man. That's right, because you know you've got to protect the identities.

Matt: 16:30

I'm cheating in here.

Rob: 16:33

Of course you're cheating.

Matt: 16:35

I'm curious about Greg here. It's that first name on the list.

Steve Zolnay: 16:38

there You've got to back up and get to Eric first, though.

Matt: 16:41

I've got to get to Eric first.

Steve Zolnay: 16:42

You've got to get to Eric we and get to Eric. First I gotta get to Eric first you gotta get to Eric we're gonna do Eric before. Greg, you might wanna hold that one. Yeah, okay, so we're dipping into some musicians. So my wife has really good musical ability and my son is a drummer and he's a fantastic drummer. He actually sits in on some of the bands and pisses off the drummer when they do it, because he's sometimes better than them.

Matt: 17:04

So duly noted, I'm not going to pick up sticks near Steve, apparently.

Steve Zolnay: 17:08

And there's a drum kit in his office as well, so he does wail on it from time to time, but I have no musical experience whatsoever. I'm literally a moron in that space. So when music comes together it's very magical. So I really enjoy that when that happens. So we were working with the town of clinton and it turns out that elo the members of elo band because elo split up into jeff lynn, who is the, the voice of elo, and the rest of the band hates jeff. So they created there's two entities one is jeff and the other is the orchestra, which is formerly of the guys from ELO.

Steve Zolnay: 17:48

And I'm like I was able to find the wife of one of the bandmates, eric, and uh, because she's into um, animals and all sorts of holistic things and we have goats at our house, I said I could use this as a hook to get her down to my place. And we have goats at our house. I said I could use this as a hook to get her down to my place and I said bring your husband. So they came down and they were hanging out in our barns playing with the baby goats and then Eric goes oh wait, I've got to take this phone call and he walks away. And then he comes back and I said who are you talking to? And he just holds up his phone and the words were Paul and I go.

Steve Zolnay: 18:26

Are we talking about the Paul? He goes, yeah, I said why are you talking to Paul? And he says well, I was working with John just before he passed because he was working on some songs together and Paul called me because he wants to rebuild those songs and put them out. So the songs that came out last year was a collaboration between eric and and paul mccartney unbelievable rob's brain just melted.

Matt: 18:48

That's mine too as a musician.

Steve Zolnay: 18:51

We're music people, so that that's pretty, pretty incredible so we've become friends and he's been over to my house a few times and with his wife and um. One time he showed up and I said, hey, eric, I got a present for you. And he's like oh yeah, what is it? And I handed him a 50-pound sack of goat poop and he goes well, that's weird. And I said, eric, you're a vegetarian, I know you have a garden and this is good shit. So I put the we carried the goat poop to his trunk and put it in there. And he's like, yeah, I really appreciate it. I'm like, yeah, I really appreciate it, I thank you.

Steve Zolnay: 19:28

And then he was kind of standing there for a minute thinking and he goes hey, we have an event coming up, we're doing a concert, you want backstage passes. So I traded 50 pounds of goat poop for two backstage passes to an ELO concert. Wow, that's really cool. All right, so now we'll talk about Greg. All right, so now we'll talk about Greg.

Matt: 19:44

All right, before we hop into that, I was going to grab is this the misplaced that's over here on the left?

Steve Zolnay: 19:51

Yep, that's the double New England.

Rob: 19:53

What double Double. You know I try not to get stuck on IPAs because I feel like they're overdone a lot, but I am an IPA boy through and through and this is delicious it's almost giving me creamsicle orange creamsicle, I taste it, yep. Absolutely.

Matt: 20:15

Very tasty. See, when we get quiet, it's because we like what we're drinking and we're just. Is that button-worthy, that one's button-worthy? Oh, absolutely.

Rob: 20:20

That one's button-worthy. Stellar said.

Steve Zolnay: 20:28

All right, so you want to talk about Greg? Yeah, so Greg Smith is a famous musician. He worked with Ted Nugent for seven years. He also worked with Lou Weister Cult, Alice Cooper and Billy Joel. He is a phenomenal musician and he lives in the hills around here and for two and a half years I shaved my legs and I wore lipstick trying to hunt him down and it worked. So he came to play in our brewery. He's been here a couple times now. He's on touring bands and he's on the road a lot, but when he's not, he's local and he can pop in. So he usually brings a drummer and a guitarist.

Steve Zolnay: 21:07

But we're talking top-flight musicians, Sure, and they just wailed and one of the coolest things they were out back playing in our bandstand and one of the songs was winding down and he leans in to the guitarist and they start talking while they're still playing as the song's winding down and all of a sudden it becomes another song and then two minutes later he leans back in and it goes back and forth and five songs were played seamlessly. And after greg, you know, came down and I said what was going on, he says well, we were playing a song in the key of e and I reached into my my guitarist. I said you got a song in the key of E. He goes yeah, I got a Rolling Stone song, so instantly became a Rolling Stone song.

Rob: 21:49

Yeah, and then another song back and forth and ended up with Eagle song, New Kid in Town it's funny how mathematical music can become and if, if you know the connections, how easy it is to kind of just streamline things together. It's, it's, it's a stroke of genius to like when, when professionals can just do this stuff like that.

Steve Zolnay: 22:10

Absolutely. And my son, who's a drummer. He goes out and checks the bands when they play and he's usually listens to a song or two and he goes. Eh, they were okay. But then, uh, when these guys were playing, he stayed on the fence for the entire concert going. Oh my God, these guys were playing. He stayed on the fence for the entire concert going. Oh my god, these guys are good.

Rob: 22:28

Yeah, I just watched a documentary on amazon prime called guns for hire, and I think it talks maybe directly about greg smith, because it talks about all these guys who have, you know, been backline people for all these big, famous people, um, whether it be ted nugent or, you know, billy joel or whatever, and and how it can all end in an instant for the these guys you know they're just there for the tour and then afterwards you know they're moving on and doing their own thing. But it was a really cool documentary.

Steve Zolnay: 22:58

So uh, greg ended up doing, uh, the billy joel broadway show, but he was the bass player and it was a good long running show. So they were there, you know, all the time, and afterwards every night they would. When they were done they'd walk a couple blocks down to an Irish bar and have a few beers before heading home. So they got to know the bartender and one night they all stepped out and this guy comes running up behind to Greg and goes hey, greg, can I come hang out with you guys tonight? And Greg goes Sure thing, mr Patrick Swayze, wow. So they go into the bar and the bartender goes Greg, do you know Patrick? He's like yeah, he's my friend.

Steve Zolnay: 23:40

Oh that's crazy. So the final bit with Greg was after one of his shows. We were just hanging out Talking and I mentioned the story about the goat poop With Eric and Greg goes I got a garden that my tomatoes just aren't working. He says I want to get in on this goat shit.

Matt: 23:57

Okay, can you hook me up? The major supplier of fertilizer?

Rob: 24:02

I think you guys need a beer called goat poop, you might Like a porter, the major supplier of fertilizer.

Matt: 24:05

I think you guys need a beer called goat poop, you might Like a porter.

Rob: 24:08

It's like something dark.

Matt: 24:09

I think that'd be hilarious. A nut brown, ale, if you will.

Rob: 24:13

And then people are curious if you're adding it as an ingredient or not.

Matt: 24:17

Oh no, and I believe and correct me if I'm wrong, but I got to see Greg perform last time I was here. Yep, yeah, Andy, and I walked in and he goes hey, this guy that's been with Blue Oyster Cult and all these other bands is going to play. And I kind of looked and went really, and he got up on stage Phenomenal Shredded.

Steve Zolnay: 24:34

Just absolutely phenomenal, yep.

Matt: 24:36

Yeah, that was one of those life experiences. For me, beer and music go together. They are two things that just go together.

Rob: 24:43

They clearly go together. It's a complimenting.

Matt: 24:44

Yeah, go together very well here at Invertase and to walk into that was just one of those life experiences. I did not expect that to occur at all that afternoon.

Rob: 24:54

It was very cool. All right, I'm going to pull this story please.

Steve Zolnay: 24:58

Oh, martin Guitar, yeah, this is near and dear to my heart.

Rob: 25:01

I always wanted a Martin guitar my whole life growing up in the Lehigh Valley, and I own three of them now. So I'm happy to say the dream came true, right.

Matt: 25:12

Yeah, yeah, a couple of times for you. So we're looking. Sorry, I didn't want to cut Steve off, but we're looking through here and Rob and I have now stopped just randomly picking and we're looking for the things.

Steve Zolnay: 25:30

We're cherry picking from the pile.

Steve Zolnay: 25:31

Now it's, it's happening. Yeah, all right, so martin guitar. Again back to the whole fact that music is magical to me. We do music trivia on on sundays. My son and I do it and we have a lot of fun. Um, he's pretty serious and I harass him and then I come down and I harass everybody and that's playing and it's a lot of fun and it's actually a real good anchor on Sunday night.

Steve Zolnay: 25:47

Um, there were two couples that that come kind of regularly and I was talking to one of them. His name's Matt. I said what do you do for work? He says I work at Martin Guitar. I said, sweeping the floor. He goes no, no, no, I actually make high-end guitars. I said what do you mean by that? And he says, like you know famous musicians and stuff like that and wealthy people. I said, oh, what do you mean by that? And he says, like you know famous musicians and stuff like that and wealthy people. I said, oh, that's cool.

Steve Zolnay: 26:07

So we wrapped up and then a couple weeks later he showed up and I said so how was work this week? And he goes oh, john Mayer, he's not fun to work with, he's very difficult, but he makes really good music. But then he says but then Eric Clapton, he's kind of frustrating because he wants to make this monster guitar but his hands are kind of small, so I'm going to have to keep making reworks and reworks. But James Taylor was pretty cool. And I said dude, did you just drop three names, big names, on me? He's like yeah. I said, oh, that's cool. So then he left and then about A month later he comes back and he's all on Twitter and I said what's the matter?

Steve Zolnay: 26:46

He said I've been working on a project for six months. These two women reached out to me to build a guitar and it's a complicated guitar. So this went on for six months and we had meetings every week, we'd have Zoom calls, I'd be sending diagrams back and forth and back and forth and finally, after six months it was done. So I picked the phone and I called them and I said, um, it's done. Where do you?

Steve Zolnay: 27:10

want me to mail it. And they said, matt, we really enjoyed working with you. I mean, it was a pleasure to work with you. We're gonna drive to martin guitar and pick it up personally. And he's like, oh, that's cool. So they set the date and everything was great. And day of the two women got out of the car, walked into reception and the the reception went holy cow and she immediately called all the VIPs and they all flooded down there and they're all jumping up and down, going, oh my God, and talking to them. And finally one of the women goes, which one of you is Matt, and none of us are Matt, and they said we don't want to talk to you, can you get Matt?

Steve Zolnay: 27:48

So the VP picks up the phone and calls matt and says can you come down here? And matt comes down.

Rob: 27:51

Here's the big reveal and nancy from heart, heart, yeah and when you said two women I I immediately thought, yeah, that's what the hell.

Steve Zolnay: 28:00

He's like they're chatting and stuff like that. And then nancy says um, matt, remember, remember, like three months ago on one of our calls you mentioned that you were in an 80s cover band. And he's like, man, you remember that and you came here and you mentioned it to me. He's like, oh, thank you so much, that was so cool. And with that there was a smile on her face. She reached from around back and she puts the barracuda guitar down on the table, looks at him and says play it, bitch.

Matt: 28:30

Oh, my God.

Steve Zolnay: 28:31

He's playing her guitar, her song, to them, as close as you and I are together.

Rob: 28:38

Wow, that's so cool.

Steve Zolnay: 28:40

Tears running down his face and then eventually he was done and they hung out for 20 minutes just talking about music and crime of the century and he says I can survive all the John Mayers and Eric Clapton's for just 20 minutes with Ann and Nancy. It was just phenomenal.

Matt: 28:57

I grew up knowing Martin guitar was in Nazareth and it was a big deal. It wasn't until I got significantly older and much more into music that I realized how much of a big deal Martin guitar actually is. Now I'm going to pick one here and I'm going to show Rob the name of it Okay, and he will appreciate why I picked Lactose Funeral. Anybody that's known me for a long time knows that earlier in my life. Lactose and I were not friends. I've been much better the last 10 years or so.

Steve Zolnay: 29:25

So I can hold my breath for 34 minutes. And the reason is so. It was a, it was a Sunday, it was music trivia, it was nice summer night and we're about 20 minutes to end to closing hours, thank god, three women come in and you could tell immediately they were dressed nicely and kind of dark dresses and they had been there and they didn't know anything about craft beer. And I said can I help you? He says we need alcohol and I said everything. Okay, he says we just came from a funeral.

Steve Zolnay: 29:55

And I said oh, I said okay, so we kind of walked them through and so forth, and then they went and sat down and about 10 minutes later one of my regulars walks into the ladies' room and then she comes flying out and she goes, ah, close it down. And I said uh-oh, so I come around and I go in and apparently they were not familiar with lactose and one of them was lactose intolerant.

Steve Zolnay: 30:23

Oh no. So I went into the first stall. She tried to make it, but she couldn't get the dress up fast enough, so the splatter was on the wall down across the entire seat and I could tell that she changed to the other stall from the brown footprints.

Rob: 30:45

Oh no.

Steve Zolnay: 30:47

And when I came out I noticed that there were two women guarding the men's room and there was probably that woman in there trying to clean up, and they kind of scurried and disappeared away. So I closed off the bathroom and after everyone left, I held my breath for 34 minutes and I cleaned the entire bathroom.

Matt: 31:08

Steve, I got a special button for this one. Oh no, so did you burn your bathrooms? I'm just curious. Did you just throw a stick of dynamite in there and call it? We really enjoyed having those. We'll build one next door.

Steve Zolnay: 31:25

I actually told my son had left and I called him. I said tomorrow morning can you do a spot check? And he says, yeah, you missed a few. But on the way home I reached out to Chuck from Jersey girl Cause I needed to get this off my my chest, cause I just can't hold this on on me all by myself. So I, I I called Chuck and I told him the whole story and he goes yeah, I've got a similar one where a guy had ate a lot of food and then threw up into the men's urinal, which is a picking job. So so we've decided we're tied right now and we're waiting for one of us to actually be the winner of this event well, I hope you don't win.

Rob: 32:00

I don't want to win for your sake. All right, matt, do we want to move before the next story, do we? Move on to fox or tranquility, you pick. All right, we want to move before the next story. Do we want to move on to Fox or Tranquility? You pick, all right, we're going to go with the Fox. I guess this is a Bohemian Pilsner.

Steve Zolnay: 32:16

Mama. We put this on because occasionally we do private events and if you get older people they say I just want a regular beer. So we built the Pilsner this is beer-flavored beer.

Rob: 32:27

So we built the Pilsner. This is beer flavored beer.

Steve Zolnay: 32:29

Yeah it is a regular beer and we move a lot of it, that's good though Police officers really enjoy it.

Matt: 32:35

They're good beer drinkers, but corrections officers are the best beer drinkers we know. Okay, love that. This, as Rob said, beer flavored beer. I love Pilsner, so Rob is an IPA boy. I'm a stout Belgian Pilsner, not necessarily an IPA boy. This is ticking all the boxes for me, so you're going three for three here. We're on the fourth one, math man, I didn't hit it for the first. I'm sorry, I didn't hit it, fine.

Rob: 33:07

There you go.

Matt: 33:07

We're circling back.

Rob: 33:10

I haven't had a bad beer yet. I'll say that. I'll be honest, that one went down the fastest.

Matt: 33:16

It's an easy drinker, that one's crushable. You know that one. You could have several of those and not get full.

Rob: 33:34

It actually reminds me a couple of times. And you know, they just, they just make solid beer there, you know, and there's no frills to it.

Steve Zolnay: 33:37

They're not trying to make it taste like cinnamon toast crunch or anything like like some breweries do and like there's a space for that, right, but I can have eight of those Yep and my son sources all the ingredients from germany and from the czech republic, and we had two guys that were, um, they do the switzerland zurich to newark flight they're the the pilots and they stopped in here, uh, because they were on a layover, um, and they immediately went to the pilsner and they sat down and they were speaking german and I said, and they told me their story and they looked at me and said you could put this in any German beer hall and they would not know the difference. So, yeah, he's true to that.

Rob: 34:13

Yeah, we actually did. We have these short episodes we call Alcohology, where we try to like be more informative than silly and funny and whatnot, and we did one about the Reinhardt's Geburt, which is like the German beer purity law, which is pretty interesting. If you think about it in today's, you know culture and everything. You know you're what, 500 years from when it was established, and people in Germany especially are still abiding by this and staying true, and you've got recipes there that have been the same for hundreds of years. I like to drink history.

Matt: 34:48

So I know that you said your son, Steve, who is the brewmaster, is very meticulous in how he puts things together, and that's really coming through for me in the beers that we're drinking right now.

Rob: 35:01

I agree, I'm going to move on to this card because I am interested in this story. Oh Lordy, the ghost story. The ghost story.

Matt: 35:07

He already talked about Patrick S this story. Oh Lordy, the ghost story. The ghost story. We talked about Patrick Swayze, no, wrong ghost.

Rob: 35:13

Hey, that was actually a good one.

Steve Zolnay: 35:14

I'll give you that. So ghost story. So early on when we were building we were doing a lot of late night stuff and my son was really putting in a lot of hours building out the brewery and he noticed that there was some weird stuff going on here in the brewery and he mentioned to me he says I think we got a ghost here. And I said, yeah, there's no ghost here. But he, to ward off any fears, he would just throw his hands up in the air at night and say, okay, mr Ghost, do whatever you want, but clean up your crap by morning. So I'm like, okay, that's fine. And then occasionally we would have customers out in the beer garden going hey, I think I've seen a ghost, normally when it's really late and they're really hammered. And I said, okay, that's probably a good plan that you noticed that there's a ghost there. But there was a woman, one of our regulars, that comes here and she claims that she's a medium and I said, well, do you think we have any ghosts here? She goes, oh, yeah, you do have a ghost here. And I said, really, tell me more. She says, well, actually he doesn't live in the brewery, he actually lives outside in the beer garden and he's a Native American adolescent, like late teens. I said really, she says yeah, and he's not evil, but he is interested in your son and kind of follows around with him every now and then. And I said, yeah, okay, sure, if you say so.

Steve Zolnay: 36:33

So this went on and one night we had a real big event and I was the last one to leave and I shut everything down, locked all the doors and I was cleaning up and I went into the cold box, which we have plastic over there, so that the cold doesn't blow out. And I went into the cold box, which we have plastic over there, so that the cold doesn't blow out. And I was in there and all of a sudden something flickered past and I said that's weird. I thought everybody was out of here and then all of a sudden all the hair on my arms just went up and I said uh-oh, ghost. So I stepped out, closed the door, locked up, put on the security and went out and I picked up my phone and I called my son. I said, hey, I think I seen your ghost tonight and he goes, oh, in front of the cold box and I went, no.

Rob: 37:15

Oh no, oh no, exactly where. Confirmed, confirmed Right to the spot.

Steve Zolnay: 37:21

So occasionally we do see that's neat, mostly with him, rarely with me, but yeah.

Rob: 37:25

Mostly with him, rarely with me, but yeah. So I'll say this For a number of years I did amateur ghost hunting. As a man of science, I find it incredibly intriguing to experience things that I can't explain and can't come up with a scientific explanation for, and over the years we've gone to plenty of places and most of the time it's like, oh well, like uh, we, we think that you might have a gas leak and maybe you're having some hallucinations because we're smelling. You know that methane smell or whatever. Or um, oh, uh, we see that you, uh, you live in an old house and there's old wiring and the electromagnetic field can probably make you have some hallucinations or the feeling of dread or whatever you know. So like, that's all well and good. But then when you have an experience and you can't find a why oh, I'm so intrigued by that I have no idea what it means. What does it all mean?

Rob: 38:20

I've seen you possessed by spirits on several occasions oh thanks, man, I appreciate that you could have thrown that one right back at me very easily very easily.

Matt: 38:30

That's fair. All right, I'm here between insurance agent and pro wrestling insurance agent yes insurance agent.

Rob: 38:37

Oh yeah, yeah, all right. Normally never would I ever think that insurance would be more exciting than a pro wrestling story. But no, but let's go with this oh wait, I think I know.

Matt: 38:47

I think you mentioned this to me before, at least part of it, because I'm looking at the subtext there.

Steve Zolnay: 38:52

The first time we met, I think you might have mentioned a story about this to me, yeah so I I go around and talk to people and I thoroughly enjoy it and meet all sorts of stories. So there was a woman that came in with some friends and I said so what do you do for work? She goes I, I'm an insurance, I'm in insurance. I said are you like risk analysis internally? Are you out there on the streets? You know dead bodies and cars and stuff? She says no, no, no, I insure talent. And I said what does that mean? She says I have a portfolio of three people that are very valuable and I have to be with them when they do what they need to do. And I said okay, please explain a little bit more she goes.

Steve Zolnay: 39:31

I have three people that are musicians and when they go and play I have to travel with them and I have to watch the setup and the takedown of all the equipment and I have to make sure that my talent is safe and healthy and so forth. I said, okay, do tell so in order. She says he's a really nice guy and he's very particular and he's good and I enjoy working with him. His name is Sting, so she has to hang out with Sting backstage.

Rob: 40:04

Hang on one second Is this the pro wrestler Sting? No, this is.

Matt: 40:08

this is I'm sure their concerns there as well.

Steve Zolnay: 40:14

But so, so she, she enjoys working with sting and he's very, you know, very good and very, very you know on point. Uh, she says her favorite one is, um, dave matthews, because they just hang out together and they talk for hours watching the crew set up and take down. She says this is just a lot of fun to hang out with Dave Matthews. Wow, and I said, okay, so who's number one? Because we're talking top flight, here he goes. Bruce Springsteen is my other one.

Matt: 40:42

Wow. So she has a small portfolio, small portfolio of three musicians. Just three.

Steve Zolnay: 40:47

Just three, just three. But so she did mention that because Bruce's daughter is into equestrian down in Colts Neck and they were going up to upstate New York to do an equestrian event and it turns out that this insurance agent actually lives up there. And she said, bruce, you know's, don't stay at a hotel because there's going to be fans and paparazzi and all that and something like that. Just stay at my house and you can sleep over there, and so you won't be bothered. And he said, yeah, so she, he ended up hanging out and sleeping at her house.

Steve Zolnay: 41:20

that's so wild so in my mind I'm thinking man sitting there at the kitchen table and seeing brucesteen come down in floppy slippers and an overcoat, and just the song in the back of my head Tramps Like Us, baby, it's born to run Wow.

Rob: 41:37

Wow, I am flabbergasted.

Steve Zolnay: 41:40

That's her job. It's a tough job.

Matt: 41:43

You had told me actually and this was the story that when I started talking to Steve, when I was sitting here having a beer, that I said Steve is my people, I need to have Steve on the podcast. You told me the story about a sax player. I believe that came in.

Steve Zolnay: 41:56

Yes, the sax player. So it was a rainy November and this guy came in and he sat down at a table and he's sipping on a beer. And I went over and sat with him and I said so what do you do for work?

Matt: 42:10

and then he goes I'm a musician but um how many people say they do that for work?

Steve Zolnay: 42:14

I'm just so he's sitting there. And I said where are you from? He says I'm local. And I said well, that's cool. So what do you do? He says I'm a musician. I said do you have a musical instrument or do you just, you know, you know, sing in the bathroom? And he says, no, no, I play saxophone.

Steve Zolnay: 42:29

And I go are you in a band? And he goes uh, I'm in a billy joel cover band. And I go yeah, saxophone, that works. I could see that working. So we're chatting and talking and my brain's spinning in the background. I go. Finally I turned him. I said dude, I don't think you can make enough money as a billy joel cover band sax player to pay the rent. And he goes yeah, you're right, I'm in another band. And yeah, he's one of Bruce Springsteen's saxophone players. Wow. So Bruce has six of them and he rotates based on availability, skill set and whims. And so my guy well, when he's not on stage he trusts Bruce, him the most and he puts him in the front row of Springsteen concerts so he could critique the show and go backstage and tell them how to improve on their music which is pretty cool.

Steve Zolnay: 43:20

He comes and visits occasionally and we meet up every now and then at farmer's markets and stuff and he brings his dog and we hang out and talk and he's just flying below the radar and he's, you know, insanely famous but nobody really notices. And I was talking to him about we were having a band coming to play and he said who are they? And I said it's these guys. And he says oh, they're really good. Um, you'll have a good, good show. And I said you should come. He says I can't, I got, I'm gonna have to be in Pittsburgh. And, um, uh, I have to go to Ohio, uh, this weekend.

Rob: 43:51

And I said with Bruce English, yeah, sorry well, matt, I feel like this is a setup. I feel like you knew that this was going to be this type of a conversation. You didn't tell me anything about it. I did, yeah, and I'm so dumbfounded by all of it.

Matt: 44:04

I'm such a music nerd. Um, rob and I are both dying inside right now because, like I said, when I met Steve and he told me a couple of these stories, I was like no, you need to be on the podcast, we need to talk.

Rob: 44:17

I think maybe two more stories and one more beer. I think two more and one more beer is a good way to go here, and then I'll go with that, because I think we already talked about sting a little bit, so I'll leave sting there. I mean, we might have to do a follow-up episode, nobody knows we could, nobody possibly could and uh, just real quick before you start there steve, I'm gonna go with the tranquility for our last beer here, and this is a bel Belgian wit. This is a style I enjoy. Yes.

Steve Zolnay: 44:50

That's my wife.

Matt: 44:52

Bring that home tonight beer, yeah, that's the one you get the phone call for Yep. I normally get the. Can you stop a giant, or something like that on the way home? Rob is furiously adding things to untapped as we're talking.

Rob: 45:05

Oh yes, no, it's very important.

Steve Zolnay: 45:08

I must document. Do you know about the problem with the military and untapped?

Rob: 45:12

No, I've never heard about this.

Matt: 45:14

I want to.

Steve Zolnay: 45:15

So if a battalion moves to another air base or wherever, and then there's a bar and they do untapped, they all go on there and guess what? You can track troop movements on untapped.

Matt: 45:25

Oh no on untapped oh that makes I know they had that problem with people checking in on facebook and things like that.

Steve Zolnay: 45:32

So that's like a big no-no. Yeah, yep, so that's a thing now. So you can.

Matt: 45:34

You can see where group deployments are going and probably what they like to drink, so you can greet them their favorite beverage. Yeah, this is a solid belgian wit. Yeah, I was enjoying it so much I stopped talking about it, but it's creamy, vel, velvety goes down easy.

Rob: 45:49

It's that classic like banana clove flavor that you get with a Belgian.

Matt: 45:54

I will say too, rob. So I had mentioned this. Rob and I had gone to the Atlantic City Beer Festival last week and one of the issues that we had at the end of the day was not that we were like tipsy, out of control, we were full. I'm not having that problem right now. These are very I don't even want to say light, but they're flavorful and they're not overly filling. You could have several of the beers here at Invertation.

Rob: 46:16

Yeah, I don't feel like I've eaten seven sandwiches exactly that's a good way to put a festival you know, like it's just carb, carb, carb, carb, carb and and although you know, I do feel like I've had something, but you know it's again not light, but drinkable, crushable even there you go approachable.

Steve Zolnay: 46:36

My son's mantra is approachable, that's so yeah, yeah, he has achieved that. He has definitely achieved that all right, so you handed me comedy, yes. So a couple years ago an organization called boston comedy reached out and says hey, do you want to do comedy at?

Steve Zolnay: 46:51

I'm like oh yeah so they bring three comics every second friday of the month, not during the summer, because comics hate light. It has to be be fall, winter and early spring because they like darkness. So second Friday of every month we host comedy here at the space on Friday nights and they're kind of BB plus talent. They need more ring time but they're good and they're polishing their craft and it's great fun to work with them. Having done a year and a half half two years of these comedies, we we've gathered some stories and three of the most notable here I'll bring up.

Steve Zolnay: 47:25

The first one is referred to as pedophile the um, the uh, the. The. The large customer area holds about 80 people and we were packed to the gills and it was dark and the opener was up on the stage. She was a really good woman and she was doing some pretty good jokes and I was really excited. So I came around from the brewery side to take a picture of the crowds for Instagram. So oh, look how famous and popular we are with all these laughing people. She caught the little bit of red in my shirt out of the corner of her eye and she stopped her bit and she slowly turned and looked at me with this evil grin that went right to the core of my being going oh man, I'm in the wrong spot and she launched into a 10-minute pedophile bit on me.

Rob: 48:13

It was horrific.

Steve Zolnay: 48:15

I was not upset with her. I was impressed with her skill set, but the portfolio of things that she laid on me was horrific. No, it was so bad that customers were coming up to me to see if I was okay.

Rob: 48:30

I would have been like, hey, we planned that, it was planned.

Matt: 48:34

Total planned, totally planned. I paid extra for that. I definitely paid extra for that.

Steve Zolnay: 48:40

So the other one was one of the closers, was doing a really good set and he was just. Everyone was just laughing hard and loud and then he said something stupid. I don't even recall what it was, but he lost the entire crowd. I was leaning up against the back wall. I said, oh, this is going to be interesting. He just smiled and he stepped off the stage, walked over, picked up one of my stools, put it back on the stage, climbed on top of the stool, took his microphone cord, wrapped it around his neck and says can someone kick the chair out from under me? And he brought the whole crowd.

Steve Zolnay: 49:11

Yeah, the last one was, as everyone's coming in just before eight o'clock for the thing, it gets really crowded and this woman comes flying in by herself. She was probably in her late 30s and dressed nicely and she had thigh-high bright red stripper boots on and I was just like, what am I going to do with this? And just to break the tension, I said so what do you do for work? And she goes. I'm a nurse. I'm a damn good nurse. You should thank me. I fucking save people's lives.

Matt: 49:45

And I was like okay.

Rob: 49:50

And.

Steve Zolnay: 49:50

I got her a beer and I let her move along and I turned around.

Steve Zolnay: 49:53

Hello nurse. So I go to the comics. They were huddled up over in the corner and I said stripper boots, that's your target. And I gave her the background and so the opener. He comes walking down Before he can hit the stage. She's already heckling him. He jumps on stage, looks at her and goes are you the bad shit, fucking crazy nurse that everyone's talking about? She didn't miss a beat and she fired back His. His 10 minute opener was a screaming match for the two of the two of them and everyone was just crying, laughing wow, good, that's amazing, yeah, that's amazing.

Matt: 50:26

Crowd work is fun, oh yeah beautiful yeah I got just just looking at what we got here. I got pro wrestling to close out the show pro wrestling.

Steve Zolnay: 50:35

so, um, there's an organization in central jersey called uwa and they do professional wrestling. They're kind of the warm-up league to the WWE and so again, they need ring time. So the fight promoter reached out to us and said would you be interested in doing wrestling out in the beer garden? And we have the space for it. And so we said yeah.

Steve Zolnay: 50:55

So we signed a contract for them. They came day of it was middle summer. It was a ticketed event because we had to put down some money for that and they built the ring and set up and we were still early in the day and this guy comes walking in. My wife and I were sitting at this table having lunch and this guy who was dressed nicely in his 30s, my wife kind of looked and goes oh, he's cute. And about an hour and a half later she sees him half naked, greased up, beating the crap out of another guy in the ring.

Rob: 51:24

And.

Steve Zolnay: 51:24

I turned to my wife and I said am I still okay? She goes yeah, you're okay, but I mean it was fantastic. They had, you know, they had the ring built up there and they started, you know, with the early people and then they built themselves up to the championship. A couple of the guys came in politely and said hey, can we borrow a couple of kegs? I was like sure why he said so. We can hurt each other. One of the bad guys was in the ring and he accidentally fell out of the ring and ran under the tent to hide. And the hero jumped out of the ring, walked up to this lady she was sitting in a lawn chair and he goes ma'am, can I borrow your chair for a minute? Walked over and beat the crap out of him with the chair, that's amazing entertainment.

Steve Zolnay: 52:08

And then it's the last the championship bout, my wife and I were standing out back watching and the evil guy looks, points at us and goes are you the owner? I said yeah. He says you screwed up. And I'm like, oh no, I have no idea what he's talking about. Oh no, he says you didn't read the contract. If I win this champion, that match, I own the brewery. And I go, oh no. And then this chanting from the crowd save the brewery, save the brewery. And the match went on for like 15 minutes and I finally went and got a half-barrel keg and I gave it to the hero and he beat the guy to death with the keg.

Rob: 52:44

Oh, that's amazing.

Steve Zolnay: 52:45

Saved the brewery. It was fantastic Wow.

Rob: 52:49

What a great storyline. Yes, yes.

Matt: 52:53

So I want to thank Steve again before we wrap up, and I also want to tell everybody that's listening come visit Invertaste here in Phillipsburg, new Jersey. Try some of the beer. There is plenty to try. I have yet to have a bad beer here. I've yet to have a questionable beer here, anything that even leans in that direction. Come check it out. Whether you're coming by plane or train or automobile, you can get here and you're going to have an experience. Come talk to steve. He's got many more stories that he would love to tell you. I know he loves to talk to those that come and visit. We're just happy to be here and hear steve's story, and I'm also. I have to mention this before we go. If you like to play pinball, there are some great pinball machines out here, right around where we're sitting. I'm seeing star wars, south park and game of thrones right off the bat.

Steve Zolnay: 53:40

So and we'll be doing tournaments in june on pinhole tournaments but, yes, if you're coming, please bring stories so I can learn your secret stories and then we can use them for another podcast yeah, I mean I've got.

Rob: 53:51

I've got to say, steve, that it's been amazing to meet you and and you're a true storyteller and and that is just the most fun to to get to meet people like yourself and and to be able to hear everybody else's stories, but through your eyes, and and thank you so much for taking the time to share that with us today thank you absolutely.

Rob: 54:10

It was fun. All right, uh, one more button. This podcast is a production of Unfiltered Studios. If you would like to know more about joining Unfiltered Studios, please visit our website at unfpodcom for more information.

Matt: 54:30

Today's boozy quote comes from baseball legend Babe Ruth, who said Sometimes, when I reflect on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed. And then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I think it is better to drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver. Would you like to suggest something for us to drink? Give us some feedback or have your brand featured on matt and friends drink the universe. We would love to hear from all of our listeners. Please check our episode descriptions down below for links to send us a text. Support the podcast and visit our merch store to keep up with our latest news or share your stellar sips with us. Please like and follow matt and friends dtu on facebook, instagram, x tick tock, blue Sky and Reddit For more information about the podcast and links to all of our episodes. Please visit wwwmattandfriendsdtucom. That's mattandfriendsdtucom. Cheers friends.